Colruyt Group Foundation and Enabel launch Youth Incubator

Halle, February 2026 – Colruyt Group Foundation and Enabel, the Belgian agency for international cooperation, launch the Youth Incubator, a five-year programme that assists and mentors young change makers in setting up impactful international cooperation projects. In times of budget cuts, this public-private partnership could well become the standard for supporting social projects.

The Youth Incubator responds to the worries that many young people have about the future. Young people are aware of the climate change urgency and the effects of international conflicts and social inequality. They also want to actively contribute to a more just and sustainable world. At the same time, young people do not always know where to turn1, they find that existing initiatives offer little flexibility2 or that they are not sufficiently open to diversity.

The Youth Incubator is a mentor programme that focuses on strengthening skills, knowledge, personal growth and (international) networking. The content of the programme is tailored to the needs of the young, with, for example, workshops on how to effectively pitch a project or raise funds and guidance from experts and mentors.

“We engage young people through a network and connect them with engaged young people worldwide. We offer them hands-on opportunities to realise their projects, in Belgium and elsewhere in the world. Think, for example, of a podcast series on peace in Ukraine or a documentary on the impact of climate change on the food chain in Belgium and Benin,” clarifies Jean Van Wetter, CEO of Enabel.

Through this initiative, Colruyt Group Foundation and BeGlobal (Enabel’s youth programme) make their expertise, network and budget available to young people aged 18-35 from Belgium and partner countries. The initiative also involves several (youth) organisations, such as YOUCA and Globelink, which have years of experience in mobilising youth around global issues.
Young people can participate in the incubator in three ways: through youth organisations, through a project call in Belgium and, at a later stage, through a project call in one of the partner countries. Each pathway follows its own course of up to two years.

The Youth Incubator aims to mentor 90 young people in the course of the next five years. This amounts to about 34 projects with 1 to 4 young people per project. Some of these projects will be selected for additional support to further grow into sustainable initiatives. The youth organisations will start the first phase in February and the first project call will be launched in summer 2026.

The partnership between the Colruyt Group Foundation and BeGlobal (Enabel) is unique and innovative. It combines the strengths of a corporate foundation and of a public player. In addition, for Enabel, the incubator is the first partnership in Belgium with a private actor. “The Youth Incubator fits closely with the Colruyt Group Foundation’s vision, which approaches young people as managers of their own lives, with an eye on their personal development,” explains Stefan Goethaert, Chairperson Colruyt Group Foundation.

Jean Van Wetter, CEO of Enabel, agrees and adds: “When we give young people opportunities to engage and work together across borders, we strengthen their knowledge about global challenges as well as their belief and ability to contribute to a more sustainable and just world.”

More information on the Youth Incubator:

Colruyt Group Foundation website
BeGlobal, Enabel’s expertise centre for global citizenship education

• For all enquiries, please contact Evelien Defossez (project officer, Enabel): evelien.defossez@enabel.be
• For all interview requests, please contact:
  Noémie Marquet (communication officer, Enabel): noémie.marquet@enabel.be
  Amélie Putmans (press officer CGF): amélie.putmans@colruytgroup.com